Vehicle on test
Mitsubishi i 5dr
Good:
Space, economy, driving experience around town
Not so Good:
Price, driving experience on motorways
Overall:
Somewhere deep inside Mitsubishi’s Research and Development department in Japan is a bit of a joker. Most marketing strategies in the world in the last year or two have nodded to the success of the Apple iPod by adding a lower case letter to the start of a product name, but our friend at Mitsubishi thought he (or she) would have a bit of a laugh by calling the company’s new baby car the i. That’s it. The i. Not the iSomething or the iCar, but the i. Ha ha ha.
That’s where the laughing stops, though, since the i city car is actually a credible answer to a thorny question. Car makers across the globe have been asking themselves how to make a small car that sips fuel, fits into ever more crowded city streets and yet carry more than two people for a good few years now, ever since the original Smart fortwo appeared in fact. The forfour’s demise a year or so ago suggests that not even Smart themselves could come up with a solution, yet the Japanese have quietly been making frugal city cars for ages, thanks to the country’s “Kei car” rules. One of the few Kei cars to go on sale outside Japan, the Mitsubishi i occupies as small a space as possible while being powered by a 660cc turbocharged petrol engine.
Not much longer than a fortwo, the i will take four adults in comfort, although luggage space is limited. Its driving manners quickly make you forget you’re in such a small car, although the bright interior colours and hard plastics aren’t so easy to overlook. That tiny engine is hidden away beneath the boot floor, so owners would be well advised not to carry any frozen chickens or ice cream back there, while a teeny bonnet covers the fuse box and fluid fillers.
The curvy shape means decent aerodynamics and 54.6mpg fuel economy figures, although its performance is less impressive – 0-62mph takes 14.9 seconds and the i runs out of puff at just 84mph. Another downside is its ability to handle crosswinds; a lengthy motorway trip left me feeling distinctly nervous after 350 miles or so spent coping with a twitching steering wheel. I know this thing is built for towns and cities, but its narrow tyres and slab-sided body make motorway journeys one of those “unless absolutely necessary” things the police are always telling us about.
The other major downside of the Mitsubishi i is its price. Only one model is currently offered in the UK and it’ll set you back just over £9,000 - a lot of money for a car that’s only real useful around town, although the other financial aspects of the car make a lot more sense. Only a very limited number of cars are being imported, so their rarity should mean high residual values, while CO2 figures of just 114g/km mean the Road Fund Licence will only cost £35 a year. Mitsubishi also offers a Service Value Plan for £100, covering the first three scheduled services and saving around £215 or so; similar to (but not as generous as) the MINI tlc package.
For what it’s worth, we were, in part, won over by the i car. More flexible than the two-seat Smart, its quirky looks mean it’s hard to ignore while its tiny size will make it easy to thread through traffic-choked city streets and park in unfeasibly small spaces. The trouble is, Fiat make a four-seat, five door city car called a Panda that looks more conventional and is available with a range of engines, including a diesel, and even a 4x4. If you want cute looks, there’s always the Panda-based Fiat 500 that’s also cheaper than the Japanese car.
Of course, our friend in R&D isn’t bothered by the Fiats, nor by any other European car; the i was developed for the Japanese market and so UK sales are almost irrelevant. For that fact alone, Mitsubishi’s UK importer should be congratulated for persuading Japan to send a boatload of the tiny cars to our shores. One other thing - the fun I had watching heads swivel for a week convinced me that the Mitsubishi joker wasn’t just involved in deciding the car’s name…….
Report by Mark James
